Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report documents the information we provided to Congress in a briefing on February 2, 2006, in response to a request concerning the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) internal budget formulation process. This includes information that VA develops for its budget submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), but it does not include information on subsequent interactions that occur between VA and OMB. We will do additional work to incorporate information from OMB and complete our analysis in a report to be issued at a later date. Congress requested information on VA's budget formulation process because of its interest in ensuring that VA's budget forecasts are accurate and based on valid patient estimates. In response to the request for information on VA's internal budget formulation process, this report provides the following for fiscal years 2005 and 2006: (1) a description of VA's process for developing its budget submission to OMB for its medical programs, and the role of VA's actuarial model; (2) a description of the medical program activities cited by VA as needing additional funding, and how VA identified these activities; and (3) key factors …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "At the start of each new Congress since 1999, we have issued a special series of reports entitled the Performance and Accountability Series: Major Management Challenges andProgram Rsks. In January 2003, GAO designated federal real property a high-risk area and issued an update in January 2005 on this area. GAO identified excess and underutilized property as one of the major reasons for the high-risk designation. This testimony discusses GAO's designation of federal real property as a high-risk area, focusing on excess and underutilized property and describes various efforts to address the problem and what more needs to be done."

Seismic wave propagation through the earth is often strongly affected by the presence of fractures. When these fractures are filled with fluids (oil, gas, water, CO{sub 2}, etc.), the type and state of the fluid (liquid or gas) can make a large difference in the response of the seismic waves. This paper will summarize some early work of the author on methods of deconstructing the effects of fractures, and any fluids within these fractures, on seismic wave propagation as observed in reflection seismic data. Methods to be explored here include Thomsen's anisotropy parameters for wave moveout (since fractures often induce elastic anisotropy), and some very convenient fracture parameters introduced by Sayers and Kachanov that permit a relatively simple deconstruction of the elastic behavior in terms of fracture parameters (whenever this is appropriate).

Under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy/National Energy Technology Laboratory, a multi-disciplinary team led by the Advanced Power and Energy Program of the University of California at Irvine is defining the system engineering issues associated with the integration of key components and subsystems into advanced power plant systems with goals of achieving high efficiency and minimized environmental impact while using fossil fuels. These power plant concepts include ''Zero Emission'' power plants and the ''FutureGen'' H{sub 2} co-production facilities. The study is broken down into three phases. Phase 1 of this study consisted of utilizing advanced technologies that are expected to be available in the ''Vision 21'' time frame such as mega scale fuel cell based hybrids. Phase 2 includes current state-of-the-art technologies and those expected to be deployed in the nearer term such as advanced gas turbines and high temperature membranes for separating gas species and advanced gasifier concepts. Phase 3 includes identification of gas turbine based cycles and engine configurations suitable to coal-based gasification applications and the conceptualization of the balance of plant technology, heat integration, and the bottoming cycle for analysis in a future study. Also included in Phase 3 is the task of acquiring/providing turbo-machinery …

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a substitute teacher may receive compensation for serving as a member of a city council (RQ-0373-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether section 61.222 of the Education code authorizes the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to approve for participation in the tuition equalization grant program(RQ-0374-GA)

Students raise their hands during a third grade class at Crockett Elementary School in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Students raise their hands during a third grade class at Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas. Crockett participates in a dual language program whereby half of the instruction is in English and the other half in Spanish without separating the students according to language ability.

Students respond to a question during a third grade class at Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas. Crockett participates in a dual language program where by half of the instruction is in English and the other half in Spanish without separating the students according to language ability.

Photograph of students raising their hands to answer a question during a third grade class at Crockett Elementary. There are multiple kids sitting in groups of four around the classroom.

Delisse Hardy leads a third grade class at Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas. Hardy is the English instructor of a dual instruction class, whereby half of the instruction is in English and the other half in Spanish without separating the student according to language ability.

Students share a text book in a third grade class during a class at Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Nancy Jimenez directs the activities of her students at Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Nancy Jimenez directs the activities of her class at Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Nancy Jimenez directs the activities of her class at Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Students work in groups in a third grade class at Crockett Elementary, in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Nancy Jemenez watches the students in her third grade class at Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Students pay attention during a class in Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Nancy Jimenez talks to her third grade class in Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Nancy Jimenez instructs her third grade class at Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Nancy Jimenez is an instructor at Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas. She is teaching a third grade class.

Delisse Hardy conducts a class at Crockett Elementary. Crockett participates in a dual language program whereby half of the instruction is in English and the other half is Spanish without separating the students according to language ability.

Delisse Hardy teaches third grade at Crockett Elementary in Grand Prairie, Texas. Crockett participates in a dual language program whereby half of the instruction is in English and the other half in Spanish without separating the students according to language ability.

Photograph of students listening to the instruction from their teacher at Crockett Elementary School. They are standing in two rows in various colored clothing.